


Country Magic #7 - What Ifs

by olivejuice28



Series: Country Magic [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Break Up, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Ron Bashing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:28:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22085647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olivejuice28/pseuds/olivejuice28
Summary: Based off the song "What Ifs" by Kane Brown. Draco tries to convince Hermione to let go of the past.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, past Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley - Relationship
Series: Country Magic [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1518281
Comments: 8
Kudos: 64





	Country Magic #7 - What Ifs

**Country Magic #7**

**What Ifs**

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“Oh, am I?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then I guess I’ll just go be ridiculous by myself!” She started to head towards the door but he gently grabbed her hand to stall her.

“I don’t want you to leave. I just don’t understand what’s got you so upset.”

“I’m not upset, I’m....”

He chuckled wryly, “You most definitely _are_ upset, you’ve been upset for over four hours, and I’m still trying to figure out why.”

She wrenched her arm from his grasp and huffed, “It’s nothing.”

“Hermione, it’s clearly _not_ nothing. You were fine at the beginning of the gala, but by the time we sat down to dinner you were positively frigid. What happened?”

“Nothing! Nothing happened,” she threw her hands up in the air, starting to feel mildly exasperated, both by his insistent questioning and her overly emotional reaction. She went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea, hoping to calm her racing heart and also wanting to hide her now-tear-filled eyes from him. He, of course, followed.

“It started right after we spoke to Undersecretary Hadad. I don’t recall him saying anything rude or,” he trailed off, replaying the conversation in his head. “Are you angry because I referred to you as my girlfriend?”

_Surely not._

She took in a slightly shuddering breath and shrugged, refusing to turn and look at him. She knew she was being irrational but her response in the moment had been completely beyond her control.

He came to her side, placed a hand in her shoulder and tried to peer into her face, but she shifted away from him. “Hermione, is that what this is all about?”

Once again, she tore herself from his reach and started pacing the kitchen. “I don’t know. Maybe? You know how much I hate labels and...” she left the unfinished thought hanging out there, unsure of how to continue.

He shoved his hands in his pockets, inhaled deeply and bit back the urge to laugh, knowing that wouldn’t help anything.

_Merlin, help me._

“What would you like me to tell people, then? Oh hello, let me introduce you to the woman-I-spend-all-my-free-time-with?” He injected a note of teasing into his tone, trying to keep things light.

“Draco, no,” she protested.

“Perhaps, my-former-nemesis-turned-significant-other?”

“Now who's being ridiculous?” she couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at her lips, even though she was still tracing a path between the stove and the counter.

“Or,” he continued on with much dramatic flair, “how about the witch-I’ve-been-exclusively-shagging-for-over-six-months?”

“Absolutely not - wait - we’ve been,” she waved her hand between them to indicate whatever their relationship was, “for longer than six months.” Her eyes narrowed while he rolled his with extreme exaggeration.

“Yes, and since we started this,” he mimicked her gesture, “I’d been exclusively shagging no one! In fact, I haven’t been with another witch since we went for coffee after the verdict on the High Street case.”

She froze on the spot, slightly surprised by his declaration. “But that was almost a year before you even asked me out.” He simply nodded and looked at her pointedly before giving a small shrug and shoving his hands in his pockets again.

_Well, now she knows._

He studied her wide eyes, filled with apprehension, and noticed she was chewing on her lower lip again, which was a clear indicator of how unsure of herself and the situation she was. He wanted to help her let go of that.

“Look, I know things with Weasley didn’t work out,” he began.

She flared back to life at once, “ _Didn’t work out?_ That’s a nice way of putting it. He strung me along for _years_!” Her cheeks were flushed as she ticked examples off on her fingers, “I rearranged my entire life for him! I gave up my perfect little flat. I passed up multiple career moves. I waited patiently on the sidelines while he did whatever he needed to, only to have it all thrown back in my face.” The tears were back, she noticed with frustration, and stinging more than before.

“I know, I know,” he tried to placate her, and made to step towards her but she held her hand out to stop him.

“No, you _don’t_ know! Being who I am, him being who he is, everyone in all of Wizarding Britain had these huge expectations and assumptions about us, and I was so afraid of letting anyone down. I gave him _everything_ and he just ... he just took it.”

She sighed, and the tears she had tried to blink away slowly coursed down her cheeks. “I loved Ron since I was fourteen. We dated for four years after the Battle, while everyone kept telling us how perfect we were for each other, and asking us when we were going to get married. Then, when he finally decided I was worth a ring, were engaged for three years before he had the nerve to call it off. It took five more months for me to figure out he’d had other witches in his back pocket the whole time.”

She wandered into the living room and sank down into a cushy armchair, pulling her knees up in front of her, wrapping her arms tightly around them. She forced herself to look up at Draco then, and found a stunned expression on his face. While he had known things hadn’t ended exactly amicably between two-thirds of the Golden Trio, he hadn’t realized the extent of the damage done by the red-headed wanker.

_What a fool._

He cautiously crossed the space between them and sat on the coffee table directly in front of her. Grasping her hands, which were still hugging her knees, he looked imploringly at her.

“I’m so sorry, Hermione. I had no idea.” He gently wiped her tears with his thumb and spoke softly, hoping she would really hear the message he was trying to convey. “But I’m not him. I _want_ us to be together, but every time I feel like we’ve made a step closer, you run even farther in the opposite direction. You can’t spend the rest of your life holding people at arm’s length, trying to protect your heart, trying to avoid loving someone.”

As he spoke, her eyes had once again brimmed with tears and he was horrified to see her bury her head in her knees, her shoulders shaking with sobs. He had never intended to cause more pain.

“Hermione, please, I’m sorry. Tell me what you want me to do,” he was virtually begging now, which he never did.

_What did I say?_

A muffled wail echoed from her defensive position.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know...”

“It’s too late!” She raised her red-rimmed eyes to meet his panicked gaze, tears still coursing down her cheeks.

“What?” he asked, confused.

“It’s too late. It’s too l-late for me to protect my h-heart,” still struggling with her emotions, she swiped at her tears in frustration. “It’s too late for me to keep you at arm’s length.”

“What do you mean?”

“I already love you!”she sobbed out her admission and buried her face again, leaving Draco stricken and stunned on the coffee table. He let her words replay themselves in his head for a few seconds, allowing their meaning to sink in.

“Do you mean that?” he asked softly, placing his hands on her arms and leaning in till his forehead touched her knees.

She sniffled and whimpered and nodded almost imperceptibly.

“Then trust me,” he implored her. “Trust me to take better care of your heart. Trust me to respect you more than Weasley did.” He ran his hands up and down her arms in a comforting gesture. “Trust me to be honest with you. Trust me to love you the way you deserve to be loved.”

She shifted and he pulled back slightly, giving her room to raise her head and peer at him through watery eyes. He could tell she was trying to measure the truth of his words and he decided he’d just spell it out for her.

“Hermione, I have been in awe of you since our school days, even when I wasn’t allowed to show anything but contempt. I grew to appreciate you and care about you as a friend after we started working together in the DMLE. And I have loved you since our second date, when that cherry tomato flew off your salad plate and you wandlessly transfigured it into a feather before it hit that lady’s head.” He chuckled at the memory as he gazed into her whiskey-brown eyes.

He could tell she was fighting an internal battle, wanting to believe him, yet afraid to let go of the emotional distance she maintained as a form of self-preservation.

“Really?” she asked timidly, almost as if voicing her query would shatter the raw and open moment between them.

“Yes. Really.” He huffed a low breath, “You’re it for me, Hermione. You are everything I have ever wanted, everything I have ever imagined and more. So much more. I’m not going anywhere, unless you want me to.”

He cupped her cheek with his hand and caressed it with his thumb. “Let me love you. Please.”

A few stray tears tracked their way down her face as she stared into the pewter eyes that had become so familiar to her. In their depths she saw sincerity and vulnerability. She saw desire and need. And she saw love. So much love that it was overwhelming.

Ron had looked at her for many years with fondness, but never with such devotion or admiration. It took her breath away and made her feel treasured and terrified in equal measure. She wanted with all her heart to let go of her fears and dive into a future with Draco without hesitation.

“But what if you’re wrong? What if you don’t feel that way in a week, or a month, or a year?” her broken, fearful confession hung between them and he knew that was really the heart of the issue.

“But what if I’m right?” he countered, giving her a small, lopsided grin. “I usually am, you know.” He was rewarded for his teasing with a tiny snort and a roll of her eyes. “We’ve got a really good thing, here,” he continued. “What if it really is meant to be?”

She stared, unseeing, at a spot on the floor between them, chewing her bottom lip again as she mulled over his words, her forehead creased in contemplation.

He could almost hear the gears whirring in the formidable mind of the beautiful witch in front of him, and wasn’t sure how to help her. Feeling like he had said all he could, he instead leaned forward, gently grasping her chin with his hand and turning her face to his. He pressed a soft kiss on her lips and tried to put as much feeling into it as possible.

If it were up to him, she would be the last woman he’d ever kiss and he hoped with every fiber of his being that she’d give him the chance to prove that to her. He took the small sigh that escaped her lips and the way she trailed one hand up his arm and into his hair as a sign things were moving in the right direction. After a few seconds, he pulled back and gazed intently at her, cocking a brow in question. It was entirely up to her, now.

She studied him for several heartbeats, allowing herself to get lost in him more deeply than she usually did, and found that the panic and worry that typically accompanied a moment like this was nowhere to be found. Instead, as she took in the man before her, she felt only peace.

“Ok,” she nodded, a small smile tugging at her lips.

“Ok?” he asked warily, wanting to make sure he understood. 

“What if you’re right,” she voiced it as a statement, not a question, and that was all the confirmation he needed before he leaned in again and kissed her once more. His heart was thrumming with joy and he felt like he’d just been given the opportunity of a lifetime. He was determined to make every second of it count.

_What if, indeed._

**“What if I was made for you and you were made for me? What if this is it, what if it’s meant to be? What if I ain’t one of them fools just playin’ some game? What if I just pull you close, what if I lean in? And the stars line up, and it’s our last first kiss? What if one of these days, baby, I go and change your name? What if I loved all these what ifs away?” ~Kane Brown**

**Author's Note:**

> This catchy little song was bouncing around in my head for weeks and I finally was able to put words to the ideas it gave me. I hope you enjoy it and that you'll check out my other Country Magic o/s Dramiones :)  
> *In real life I adore Ron Weasley and do not think he'd actually behave in such a way!*


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